Slovenia players united in anger over Wayne Rooney penalty controversy

The Slovenia players have angrily condemned Wayne Rooney over Saturday's controversial penalty, accusing the Manchester United forward of going down "far too easily" and showing a lack of fair play by appealing for a foul.

Battle for the ball: England's Wayne Rooney has received criticism from Slovenia's players over the way he won a penalty in the 2-1 victory on SaturdayPhoto: REUTERS

They also believe that Rooney kicked their centre-back Bostjan Cesar, who suffered damage to his ankle and will now miss what is a vital World Cup qualifying match against Poland on Wednesday.

Replays confirmed that England should not have been awarded a penalty when Rooney tangled with Cesar, although suggestions that he deliberately dived also looked harsh. However, coming just a day after England captain John Terry had hailed the honesty of English players, the incident was certainly badly timed. "I'm not happy," said Samir Handanovic, the Slovenia goalkeeper. "Rooney is a good player but I did not expect this from a player from a good team with his quality. It was wrong for him to do this [appeal]. It was not fair play but that is football.

"It was a foul for us. He [the referee] gave it because England is a bigger national team than Slovenia. Cesar is not okay and will be out for 10 to 15 days."

Rooney himself had responded to the recent furore over Eduardo's two-game Uefa ban for "deceiving the referee" by saying that he had never dived. He declined to comment after the match but received support from his England team-mates. "The lad was pulling his shirt – sometimes they're given, sometimes they're not," said striker Emile Heskey.